Walking the walk and riding the ride

On Sunday, both the Chicago Suntimes and the Chicago Tribune reported that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has issued a new travel policy designed to encourage City workers to get out of their cars and onto public transit. Corporate and civic leaders across the region can take a cue from Mayor Emanuel’s leadership by hopping aboard MPC’s Commute Options program.

With the Civic Consulting Alliance, Regional Transportation Authority, Active Transportation Alliance, and other key partners, MPC launched the Commute Options pilot earlier this year to make it easier for employers to provide their employees with alternatives to the daily grind of car commutes. For more than 10 years, MPC has been working with area employers to help them start Employer-Assisted Housing (EAH) programs, an innovative housing benefit that offsets a worker’s cost to buy or rent a home near their job or transit. Commute Options goes the extra mile by identifying and tailoring many more options to ease commutes, such as pre-tax transit checks, bicycling incentives, I-Go Car sharing and van pooling, as well as EAH.

All of these incentives not only help alleviate workers’ stressful commutes, but they also promote bottom-line benefits to employers, which is why Loyola University, Labelmaster, Chicago Public Schools and a range of other employers already have “jumped aboard in the City.” In the suburbs, Grainger and Champro and Underwriters Laboratories are also engaged and showing leadership with this Pilot. While employees quickly accrue mental, physical and financial benefits of a less stressful and costly commute, MPC is also helping these trail-blazing employers – from both the public and private sector -- tally their resulting savings – in terms of workforce stability and the reduction of parking reimbursements, turnover, tardyism and other key indicators.

Related

MPC has some unfinished legislative business in Springfield, which we’ll continue to work on this summer in anticipation of the fall veto session and next spring’s new General Assembly. But there was tangible progress, despite the state’s fiscal free-fall. Here’s a snapshot…

This letter ran 4/13/2010 in the Chicago Tribune.
For years, we’ve known that many local workers – the proverbial teachers, nurses and firefighters, plus dozens of other professionals – cannot afford to purchase a home in metropolitan Chicago (“Make less than $62k?…

Two reports released in late March by MPC's partners show there's still more work to do before affordable living is truly within reach for most American families.
The Center for Housing Policy's annual Paycheck to Paycheck study estimated the median home price in Chicago fell from $225,000 in 2008…

Since 2004, Philadelphia Home Buy Now (PHBN) has provided $1.2 million in 395 matching grants to participating employers’ employees to purchase a house in the city of Philadelphia. Over the course of the program, 44 participating employers have provided $2.1 million in forgivable loans and…

The Chicago region has a rich network of transportation options, yet traffic congestion remains a persistent challenge. It’s a problem that hurts individuals as well as the region’s economy: We waste billions of dollars and countless hours each year.
While no single solution will…

How often do you get out of your car after a particularly grueling commute, frustrated and stressed, and you haven’t even started your work day yet? You’re not alone—69 percent of Chicago area residents drive to work regularly because they feel that it’s the fastest and most…

This white paper describes research conducted by MPC Commute Options Project Manager Tim Grzesiakowski and Research Assistant Ziggy Czykieta about marketing transportation services to the Chicago area's Polish community. It discusses the four waves of immigration from Poland to the U.S., where…

This presentation was given to the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest on May 13, 2014, and describes transportation demand management programs in the Chicago area, and similar work being done in Germany.

Helping create competitive, equitable, and sustainable communities

For more than 80 years, the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) has made the Chicago region a better place to live and work by partnering with businesses, communities and governments to address the area's toughest planning and development challenges. MPC works to solve today's urgent problems while consistently thinking ahead to prepare the region for the needs of tomorrow. Read more about our work »